This marks the first return of a CS:GO Major to Katowice since ESL One was held in the city in 2015, as well as ESL's first Major since ESL One Cologne in 2016. This will be ESL's sixth time hosting the pinnacle of the event calendar.

The start of the event shall be the 16-team New Challengers stage, held between February 14th - 20th at the ESL Studios in Katowice, where the top two teams from each Minor will meet the middle-eight teams of the FACEIT London Major.

The top eight teams from that will move to the New Legends Stage, held between February 21st - 24th, in the nearby International Congress Center, where they will meet the Legends teams from the FACEIT London Major. This will also be hosted infront of a 1,000-strong live audience at the venue, as part of the IEM Expo.

Finally, the New Champions playoffs stage will be held between February 28th - March 3rd in the Spodek Arena, from which the new Major champion will be crowned, taking home a sizeable chunk of the $1,000,000 prize pool. This event will mark the seventh consecutive IEM held in the Polish city.